Page of Swords

Identity

Symbols

• The Long Sword Held in Both HandsThe blade has not yet been used to cut — it is still only an intention. The young mind grips its own sword and learns, before any strike, simply to let it stand upright.+

  Waite has him hold it 'upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking': a carrying grip, not a stroke. Smith lifts the hilt to shoulder height, and the blade runs up to the top edge, the tallest line in the picture.

• The Look Over the ShoulderAttention directed toward where the news comes from, not where the blade will go — the scout's duty is listening, not striking.+

  Waite's youth is 'alert and lithe, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment', and his meanings run to 'vigilance, spying, examination'. Here the head turns left, away from the raised blade.

• The Hair Lifted by the WindThe body participating in the air — he knows the moment the wind shifts. This is the best kind of presence: not grim readiness, but permeability to a light touch.+

  The hair streams out to the right, so the wind comes from the left, the side his head is turned toward. On a card of swords, the suit the Golden Dawn gives to air, he is looking straight into the moving element.

• The Uneven RidgeThe ground of thought is never level — the young apprentice must first learn to stand steady on uneven earth before any further seeing.+

  Waite's 'rugged land' is drawn as a low striped hillock under his boots. The horizon sits so low behind it that from the knees up he is seen against sky and cloud alone.

• The Wild CloudsCloud banked on both sides of him, down to the height of his knees — weather crowding in, nowhere at rest.+

  Waite writes that 'about his way the clouds are collocated wildly', set together in disorder. Smith banks them on either side and down to knee height, so the youth seems to walk at the level of the clouds rather than beneath them.

• The Birds in the SkyA scattered flock high in the upper left, on the side he is looking toward.+

  Birds recur in the skies of the Swords court: a few small ones over the Knight, a single bird above the Queen, a pair beside the King. The Page has the most of them, a loose flock, small and far off, all on the side toward which he looks.

Story

Wind crosses the card from the left, and what can move leans with it: the cloud banked on either side of him, the dark trees bent low at the far left. The youth is mid-stride on a hump of ground, body open toward us, head turned hard to the left, both hands keeping the sword up beside his shoulder. Below the clouds the land falls away to a pale, far horizon. Nothing approaches yet; he faces the side the weather comes from.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

Ace of Swords

Page of Cups

Page of Pentacles

Combinations with this card